Apple relents on iPhones subsidy — By Andrew Parker in London, Paul Taylor in New York and Richard Waters in San Francisco — The new version of the Apple iPhone is set to be sold at significantly lower prices than the existing one, in a tacit acknowledgement by the US technology company …

T-Mobile Sues Starbucks Over Free Wifi — What do they say - one man's meat is another man's poison. Looks like that was for T-Mobile USA that has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, which had recently switched over from T-Mobile to AT&T. — AT&T offering free WiFi at Starbucks locations …

T-Mobile sues Starbucks over Wi-Fi deal — T-Mobile USA is suing Starbucks, accusing the coffee behemoth of a breach of contract by allowing AT&T to provide customers with free Wi-Fi access in its cafes. — In a complaint filed Thursday in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan …

Can DataPortability.org become any more irrelevant? — First, some links to people who've been discussing DataPortability: Eran Hammer-Lahav (and an earlier mailing list post), Dave Winer and Scott Kveton. Read these, please, and read the comments. — Now, I've pretty much given up on DataPortability.

Why Amazon Went Down, and Why It Matters — Amazon.com's U.S. retail site became unavailable around 10:25 AM PST, and now appears to be back up. Amazon's not naming names — all that director of strategic communications Craig Berman would say was that: “Amazon's systems are very complex …

Apple Should Open Up Apple TV — Apple TV is seen by many as a technology also-ran. — \While it's sold several million units, it's missing that certain something that would turn the device into a hit, like the iPod, the iPhone, or even Apple's notebook computers. — Apple TV is perfectly positioned to take off.

QQ To Compete With Xiaonei.com — Today, QQ soft launches a new service called QQ Xiaoyou, which is a social networking service targeted at students in universities and high schools. Actually, Xiaoyou is the Chinese Pinyin for alumni. Currently, only invited QQ users are allowed to test the service.

Moving Mountains With the Brain, Not a Joystick — STILL using a mouse, keyboard, joystick or motion sensor to control the action in a video game? It may be time to try brain power instead. — A new headset system picks up electrical activity from the brain, as well as from facial muscles …

The Mouse That Roared — Our visit the other day to the GooglePlex was extraordinary on a number of levels. At its simplest, the Gmail group opened its kimono to bloggers and what's left of the mainstream media - full stop. We were asked not to live video the announcements of Gmail Labs …

Router crashes blamed on Windows XP SP3 … Broadband modem/router maker Billion says XP SP3 has been causing its BiPAC 5200-series routers to go into a constant crash and reboot cycle. — The company has produced firmware upgrades that solve the problem.